In addition to voice calls, mobile phones and other wireless devices are also used for data services such that data is retrieved from a data provider via e.g. mobile communication network. Today it is commonplace to e.g. retrieve contents of web pages from servers in the internet for viewing the content in a web browser running on a mobile phone or another wireless device.
Today's mobile phones and other wireless devices are also capable of operating as content providers. For example, a mobile phone can run a mobile web server, the content of which can be made available to virtually anybody who has access to the internet. The content of the mobile web server is accessed from the internet via the mobile communication network, to which the mobile phone or other wireless device that is running the mobile web server is attached, typically through a web gateway. If the mobile web server is accessed through the web gateway, the gateway can e.g. provide the mobile web server related connectivity and security functions. For example, the web gateway can receive HTTP requests directed to the mobile web server and relay the requests to the mobile web server using an address of the mobile web server in the mobile network that is known to the gateway. The gateway can also operate as a firewall.
A user of a mobile phone with a web browser can access the content of a mobile web server run by e.g. another mobile phone in a similar manner as accessing the content of a web server in the internet. That is, the user enters or selects, using the web browser of the mobile phone, the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) associated with the mobile web server, after which the protocol stack software of the mobile connects the mobile phone to the mobile web server and retrieves the requested content. Even if the mobile phone running the mobile web server is located close to the mobile phone requesting the content, e.g. in the same cell, the data communication path between the mobile phones may run a long distance in the network infrastructure of the mobile communication network and reserve two uplink and two downlink channels in the cell where the mobile phones are located. A similar situation may arise when the mobile web server is accessed e.g. from a laptop computer.
Today's mobile phones and other wireless devices are typically also equipped with short range wireless communication modules, such as WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) and Bluetooth® modules. If a mobile phone accessing a mobile web server and a mobile phone running the mobile web server are located in proximity of each other, the connection between the mobile phones may be established through e.g. WLAN instead of a mobile communication network in order to save costs. However, the user of the mobile phone accessing the mobile web server may not know, whether the mobile phone running the mobile web server is located nearby or whether the WLAN service is started at the web server mobile phone.